The Shark Blog

Dailyjoust.com recently kicked off their fantasy hockey offering.By the looks of things, it's bound to be a
success.Between the live scoring
features, original take on the goalie position, and a top notch user interface,
many daily players should be flocking to the site this season.Daily Joust also has a unique point scoring
system that you need to get a grasp on in order to build the optimal
roster.So for those new to the site /
sport, here's your 101 strategy on building a winning roster for Daily Joust
hockey.

You have 9 roster
spots to fill and $1 million in cap to spend.That averages out to about $110k a player to spread out across your
goalie, defense, and three forward positions.But all positions are not created equally.

GOALIE

Always start by
selecting your goalie squad.Daily Joust
is unique in that you need not concern yourself with who is getting the start
in net, as you're selecting a team, not a player.Obviously there is a difference in quality
between most starters and their respective backups, so you'll still want to
stay somewhat informed before making your pick.However, you won't get completely burned when Miller gets his off-night
of rest.In terms of scoring, the goalie
position is potentially the most lucrative, and therefore, the most
expensive.Breaking it down by what you
can expect based on performance:

Great win (shutout): 50 pts

Good win: 30 pts

Avg loss: 1 pt

Bad game: -8 pts

As you'll see in a
moment, you can't reasonably expect a forward to earn you 30 to 50 points the
way a solid goalie effort will, but you'll pay for that privilege.Goalie salaries range from about $110k to
$265k, with the decent options starting around $220k.As you can see, you have no choice but to
spend some money at this position.The
prices are based on the rankings of the goalies and don't really take into
consideration the weakness of the opponent.This is where you can cash in.Focus on the opponent here.Anyone playing the likes of Winnepeg, Ottawa, Columbus or Calgary should
catch your attention in the early going.

DEFENSE

Once your crease is
settled, hold your nose and fill up the necessary spots with defense.While I'm a huge fan of the position in the
real game of hockey, there's just no love to be had in the fantasy world.Forwards and defensemen are rewarded with
equal weight for their stats, and as a rule, defensemen score at half the pace
of forwards.Best bet here is to scrape
together a couple of value players with some chance of registering points,
while saving as much cap as possible for your offense.The one thing to note for this position is
the hits and blocked shots.You can
sometimes find consistent producers in these categories, even if the goals and
assists are sporadic.Here's what you
can expect most nights:

Great game: 25 pts

Avg game: 15 pts

Poor game: -3 pts

Defensemen salaries
start at $45k and go all the way up to $177.If you're spending the money at the upper end of that spectrum, you're
not winning.Players at the $45 tend to
be inactive, so pay attention if you're scraping the very bottom of the
barrel.The reasonable options start
around $70k.You can find some solid
options lingering around $100k.You'll
rarely find me topping $110k at this position.

OFFENSE

Assuming you've
followed my advice, you've probably invested under $300k to this point, leaving
you to spend about $115k per forward.Here's what you can expect from these guys:

Great Game: 40+ pts

Avg Game: 20 pts

Poor game: 5 pts

As with the defense,
your options technically start at $45k, but you won't find much worth exploring
until you get to the $60k territory.At
that point, try and snag one or two sleepers lingering between $60-$70k.Right now, youngsters like Alex Burmistrov
and Cody Hodgson can be had for this price.Doing this will allow you to splurge on a superstar or two.There are a handful of players who produced
on an almost nightly basis last season (Stamkos, Daniel Sedin, Perry…).Despite the crazy cap hit, it's worth
grabbing one for the near-guarantee in points.This season, I'll be playing Claude Giroux and/or Stamkos every chance I
get.If/when Crosby returns, you can add
him into that category as well.

BEST VALUES

Now that you've got
the basic strategy in hand, here are a few guys that stand out as good value
picks given the current cap hits:

James van
Riemsdyk (PHI) -
JVR is on the verge of a major breakout season.He's lingering the moderate price range
for now ($123k).Expect that to
climb as his stats do the same.

Evgeni
Malkin (PIT) -
Yes, he's hurt, which is the only thing to explain his $130k cap hit.The moment he returns, use him in your
lineup until the inevitable price correction.

Ryan Kesler
(VAN) - Perhaps
the injury factor explains this one, too.Kesler is a fantasy stud, delivering goals, assists, hits, +/-, and
every else that counts.He just
played his first game of the season and sits at $123k.

Derek Stepan
(NYR) - Yes,
it's true, he hasn't registered a point yet.Be patient.At $71k, this sophomore is due for a
huge game and can't come much cheaper.

Clarke
MacArthur (TOR)
- MacArthur has just 1 point, having missed a couple of games with a
suspension.He's certainly worth
more than his $74k salary would lead you to believe.

Kyle Okposo
(NYI) - Expect
Okposo to starting putting up some numbers at some point this season.$74k is low.